Dominatus (28 page)

“I walk back out to the reception area and hand Clancy a hundred to cover the cost of the doctor’s work.  I’m kind of shifting in my feet at that point, I apologize for causing such a mess…apologizing for the way I smell…and she’s just being so nice to me.  Not in a fake this is my job kind of way.  I could tell she was just a nice person who genuinely cared about people, reminded me a little of my mom I suppose.  So I ask her if she wanted to grab a bite later that day, when she was off work and she says yes.  Sure.  Told me I owed her a meal after putting her through all that bleeding.

“And that’s how we met.  We dated for a few more months and then I asked her to marry me.  She said no.”

I couldn’t help but sound surprised at what Bear just said.

“She told you…she said no?  She wouldn’t marry you?”

Bear managed a small chuckle.  I could see the scar from the story he just shared with me cutting across the upper left side of his now shaved head.

“Yeah, she told me we needed to get to know each other a little better first.  But I always thought that what she was really saying was that I still had some growing up to do.  And by then I figured she was right.  So, I stopped all the hard drinking…stopped the fighting.  I just woke up, went to work, came home and cleaned up, and got back to Clancy as fast as I could.  A few more months after that, she said yes.  And we got married.  There was the little church in St. Paul…we did it there.  Just the two of us and a witness.  But it was a done deal, and I was the happiest man alive.  No doubt.  I knew right then my purpose for the rest of my life was to keep her safe, and when the kids came along, to keep them safe too.  And that’s what I’ve tried to do.  The best I can.”

“Is that why you had a less than friendly greeting for me when I came here to Dominatus?  You considered me a threat to the safety of your family?”

Bear scratched the unshaved three-day growth on his face as he contemplated the question.

“Maybe, yeah, but I’m not so friendly to anyone I don’t know.  Sorry if I wasn’t all warm and fuzzy, but I don’t really do warm and fuzzy.  I have Clancy, the kids…I worry about what the future is for them.  Do we have a future?  We’re all sitting inside this fucking cave.  What now?  Clancy was just telling me last night, in this room, that this was something we knew could happen, but that doesn’t make it easy.  Sure don’t make it right either.  I mean, what have we done wrong out here?  Nothing.  Not a goddamn thing.  We keep to ourselves.  We grow our own food…produce our own power…take care of the environment, but in this world we are living in now, that makes us enemy #1 doesn’t it?   Just like my dad told me all those years ago, that the world we have now is the one that was coming our way.  People were giving up their freedom, little bit here, little bit there.  Pretty soon, that freedom is gone.  Dad was right, and I’m sure there were other people trying to get the word out like he was, but not enough of us listened.  We kept telling ourselves that couldn’t happen in America, but it did.  It happened right in front of us and…and we let it happen.”

“How did you find Dominatus?”

“That…Dominatus found us.  You know the guy who drove you up here, Yoti?”

I nodded – recalling the cheerful Eskimo who had driven me from the reservation to the trail that eventually led to Mac’s tavern in Dominatus.

“He was at St. Paul when the Feds finally started to shut down some of the canneries.  The ones that refused to unionize.  That was a few years after Clancy and me got married.  She was pregnant with our second, little Jeanie.  So Yoti was telling us about this place way up in Alaska’s interior that a rich old man had built where the government left people alone.  Yoti came from the reservation.  He is actually one of the company officers for the entire area – same company the Old Man bought up all the land from that became Dominatus.  And him and the Old Man are pretty tight.  Go back over twenty years.  Yoti was a part owner of one of the canneries that got shut down on St. Paul…so he told me…told Clancy and me… that he was going back to the reservation and asked us if we wanted to check out Dominatus.  He said it would be a great place to raise our kids.  We said sure, and a few months after Jeanie was born, we made our way here with the Old Man’s blessing.  He told us to come on up.  That was…about five years ago.”

The unmistakable sound of a large caliber gun firing several rounds gently shook the interior walls of the cave as I heard the footsteps of someone running down the hall just outside the room’s door.  Bear jumped from the bed to look out into the hallway and was greeted by Clancy and their two kids.  Clancy did not appear panicked, but there was stress in her voice.

“Drones.  At least three of them just flew over the entrance to the cave.  I guess Keith is firing on them now…trying to shoot them out of the sky.”

As Clancy finished her sentence, another round of gunfire was felt inside the cave: BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

I could hear Mac’s voice calling from down the hallway.

“This is nothing we weren’t expecting.  Everyone either stay in the main room or your personal room.  I’ll report back to everyone in a few minutes.”

Bear placed Clancy and the kids onto one of the beds.

“I’m going to check in on Mac, see if he needs anything.  Keep the door closed until I come back.”

I followed Bear out into the hall and closed the door behind me.  Several people were gathered at one end of the hall where the main room and kitchen were, while Mac stood at the opposite end.  When he spotted Bear and then me, he motioned for us to join him.

“Bear, I need you to keep people away from this door – don’t want anyone waiting around the defense room, or bothering Doc in the medical room.  Reese, you’re welcome to stick with me if you want.”

I followed Mac back into the cavern area and then to the defense room where Keith still sat in the chair facing the large monitor that was showing the outside image of the entrance to the cave.  Keith’s gaze never left the monitor as Mac began questioning him.

“Did you confirm the number of drones?”

Keith nodded slowly, switching the screen’s image over to the area where the Freedom Tavern once stood.

“Three drones - shot one down about two hundred yards east of the cave entrance.  None of the drones appeared to be armed.  They’re surveillance.”

“They were testing the system Keith, seeing what kind of firepower we had.  Now that we’ve shown them, they’ll adjust and the next group of drones will be armed.  I’d put the eta on that at around ninety minutes.  The first batch will also be a test of our defenses, but we need to prepare people for it…it’s gonna be loud and scary as hell.  The defenses should hold though.  We got a lot of rock between us and them.

You need a break Keith?”

Keith shook his head, the image on the monitor now coming from the camera at the top of the hill looking out across the valley.

“I want another chance to shoot down more of those drones - hate those fucking things.”

Mac’s right hand squeezed Keith’s left shoulder.

“Well, you’ll be getting that chance soon enough, my man.  Soon enough…”

As we re-entered the hallway Mac turned to the right and lightly knocked on the outside of the medical room.  Dublin’s voice answered back for us to come in.  The Old Man remained in the hospital bed, his eyes closed and his breathing sounding more labored than when I saw him last just a few hours ago.  Dr. Miller looked up at us as we entered and I noted a hint of sadness on his face.

“How’s he doing?”

Mac’s question hung there unanswered for a moment as both the doctor and Dublin glanced at each other.  Finally Dr. Miller replied.

“He still has that fever…low grade at this point – 100.4 degrees, but it came up fast in just the last hour.  Keeping him hydrated but when he woke up a bit ago he wasn’t hungry and a little disoriented.  Confused for a minute or two about where he was at.”

Mac looked over at Dublin and then back to Dr. Miller.

“So – how bad?  Or how good?  What are we looking at here?  Can you give him a shot of something?  An antibiotic?”

“We are fighting early onset pneumonia here, the fluid in the lungs has increased.  Marginally, but any increase is concerning especially given his age.  That is causing the labored breathing.  He already has some congestive heart issues, normal given his advanced age, but it can worsen very quickly if the pneumonia spreads.  You likely noticed the wheezing sound during his breathing.  That is indicative of viral pneumonia, not bacterial.  Normally viral presents less severe conditions and the body is more able to heal itself, but again, Mr. Meyer’s age and already weakened immune system compromises that normality.  I’ve already administered him a dose of Zanamivir …a viral inhibitor.  At this point, it’s a matter of waiting this out, and hoping he regains some strength.”

I looked over at Dublin and noticed her looking back at me, offering a slight, reassuring smile as she did so.

Mac gave the Old Man a long look and then reached a hand out to open the door.

“Keep me updated, Doc, and if you need anything, Dublin, you let me know.  Or talk to Lucille and she’ll be happy to help you out.”

Dr. Miller spoke up before Mac entered the hallway.

“Should we expect another drone attack Mac?  And if so, how soon?”

Mac nodded slightly and then shrugged.

“Yeah, wouldn’t be surprised to hear them dropping on us in another hour or two.  We’ll be safe though.  The Old Man had this place built right.”

The doctor paused, appearing uncertain if he wanted to ask another question.  He did.

“But for how long Mac?  How long will we be safe in here?  And if…if they breach the blast doors, what then?”

Mac opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by the voice of Alexander Meyer whose hand swiped away the oxygen mask from his face.

“Then Dr. Miller, we fight.  To our last…to our last breath…our last bullet…we fight.”

Mac looked back at Dr. Miller while pointing to the Old Man.

“What he said.”

XX.

Mac’s prediction of more drone bombings in an hour or two proved accurate.  Nearly ninety minutes later the M2 was both heard and felt inside the cave firing off a series of rounds into the night sky.  Moments later, the first of several bombs were dropped atop the hill inside which the remaining residents of Dominatus found themselves hiding out from the New United Nations authorities.

Mac had conducted a count of the total number inside the cave.  There were seventy-four of us.  As the bombs hit, I sat with Mac and about twenty others in the cave’s main room. The rest had gone to the personal rooms to sleep…or pray.

As each bomb hit the lights inside the cave would momentarily dim, then return to full power.  The floor below us groaned its disapproval, and a light dusting of material from the ceiling fell onto our heads.

Mac let out a long, low whistle.

“Those are some two thousand pounders they’re dropping on us.  Rare for a drone to be carrying that heavy of weaponry, but it looks like they ain’t messing around.”

Another bomb rumbled through the cave’s interior as several eyes looked up at the ceiling with increasing worry.

“Folks, every bit of this place is concrete and steel reinforced – from the walls to the ceilings to the floors.  They could bring the whole hill down on top of us and we’d still be sitting in here warm and well.  I checked out the design myself.  It’s based on the government facility out in Cheyenne – the military bunker inside that huge mountain.  We don’t have quite that much material between us and them as Cheyenne, but we’re doing ok.  Doing fine.”

Mac’s attempts to reassure everyone fell short as yet another bomb temporarily dimmed the lights as the big M2 gun continued to fire at the drones. Mac rose from his bench as others from their rooms in the hallway returned to join the larger group in the main room.

“Gonna go check on Keith again.  He’s been pulling an all-nighter in the defense room.  I would suggest everyone try and rest up as much as you can, though I understand with all the noise that’s easier said than done.”

I followed Mac out into the hall.

“Do you really believe this place can hold up against those kinds of bombs Mac?”

Mac gave his now predictable shrug.

“We’ll be fine for a while.  I can’t see them keeping this up for the long haul, especially if we keep shooting down those drones.  Those things aren’t cheap.”

“But what if they do keep it up?  How long are we good inside here?”

“Hell, I can’t bother with things that I don’t control.  I figure we’re good for a few days of this easy.  After that, I can figure something else out.”

There was another question I had wanted to ask, and decided then to do so.

“Your count came up with seventy four people inside the cave Mac.  What happened to the other thirty or so who were living in Dominatus?”

“They either left out on their own, or stayed inside their cabins.  The ones who left might have a chance.  The ones who wouldn’t leave their cabins are likely dead.  The drones got to most the cabins by now I’m sure.  And there’s probably a few special operations officers down their as well, and I don’t think they’re here to arrest anyone.”